The consortium led by Telefonica de Espana SpA was the winner of the bidding for the Peruvian government’s shares in those two telephone companies with its offer of over $2,000m: the consortium comprises Telefonica and three Peruvian companies; it outbid two other groups, one led by GTE Corp with two Brazilian partners, the other including Southwestern Bell Corp, Korea Telecom, Daewoo Telecom Ltd and others; the consortium gets the government’s 35% stake in Compania de Telefonos and 35% of its 100% holding in Entel Peru SA; the rest of the shares in the latter will be held in trust and sold gradually; the winner gets a five-year monopoly on fixed telephone lines and long distance service but will be required to lay 1.5m new lines at an estimated cost of $1,500m; the growth potential that created the unusual attraction is underlined by the fact that Peru currently has just 2.6 telephones per 100 inhabitants, Reuter reports from Lima.
